The stage is set for a direct contest between NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan and joint opposition candidate B Sudershan Reddy for the September 9 vice-presidential election. Nominations have been scrutinized and accepted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders who paid homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home in New Delhi on Friday.
Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid's remark about Congress president Sonia Gandhi getting emotionally moved by Batl a House pictures might have created a furore in the Congress circles.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi asserted that the Congress will protect the Constitution and the reservation system at all costs and foil "conspiracies" of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Gandhi claimed that Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes were made bonded labourers and their participation was lacking in big companies, hospitals, schools, colleges and courts.
Even as Congress General Secretary and the party's in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh on Tuesday sought to describe Rahul Gandhi's 'kisan sandesh yatra', which he launched from Bhatta Parsaul early on Tuesday morning as "completely apolitical", both the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bhartiya Janata Party sought to term it as a "political gimmick."
Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu met party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday morning, and is learnt to have discussed his role in the revamp in the party's state unit ahead of assembly polls.
The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the dip in vaccination numbers after a record high earlier this week with former party chief Rahul Gandhi saying the country is not safe unless vaccination is done on a large scale but sadly the government is "unable to move beyond a PR event".
The Mahayuti landslide in Maharashtra will leave the state assembly without a leader of opposition as no party outside the ruling alliance has been able to get the mandatory minimum 29 seats.
Ramesh said the current limit of 50 percent is not explicitly mandated by the Constitution, but has been decided through various Supreme Court decisions.
'The Indian economy has been subsidised by the poor.'
They said the filing of nomination papers will be a big show of strength and the top Congress leadership will be present.
The Congress general secretary said that the country was in trouble and voices of dissent were emanating from different corners.
Convert the Haryana result into a blessing in disguise; make the calamity into an opportunity. Maharashtra was always the big ticket game in town; MVA must win it. The Congress should shift headquarters to Mumbai for the entire month. Show urgency and a hunger to win, asserts Sanjay Jha.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, said, "I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief."
Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary in charge of western Uttar Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, will accompany her.
The Congress is gearing up to demonstrate a political show of strength on Monday when the party leader Rahul Gandhi will appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection in connection with a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.
Sources said MPs of the opposition alliance in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will meet to chalk out their joint strategy for the session from September 18 to 22.
A brief overview of North Bengal districts' constituencies
The Gandhi siblings first drove from their hotel in Srinagar to the shrine of Ragnya Devi, popularly known as Mata Kheer Bhawani temple, in Tullamula area of the central Kashmir's Ganderbal district, the officials said.
If Priyanka wins the Lok Sabha bypolls, it would be for the first time that three members of the Gandhi family will be in Parliament. Her mother Sonia Gandhi is a Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan.
Slowly, Rahul Gandhi is becoming more pro-active and taking a great deal of interest in matters of governance and key programmes of the United Progressive Alliance government. On Thursday, Rahul called on Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at his residence (the first time he paid such a visit) with a Budget wish-list.
The All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Vadra attended the marriage of the son of Sonia Gandhi's trusted personal assistant Madhavan.
Rahul openly said he did not favour the 'high command' system in his party. Undoubtedly the Congress would have hounded any other partyman for such a brutally honest and politically-incorrect statement. But when Rahul Gandhi -- the rising force of Congress party -- speaks, you are forced to listen.
The outlawed anti-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam on Sunday took exception to All Indian Congress Committee general secretary, Rahul Gandhi's comment referring to 'suspected illegal migrants from Bangladesh' lodged in camps of violence-displaced people in western Assam as Indian citizens.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have reassured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the party's support for him and the government -- in the wake of Rahul Gandhi's criticism of a Union Cabinet ordinance that allows Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly to attend Parliament and state assemblies despite having criminal cases against them.
Congress leaders and workers were also detained on Wednesday after they staged protests outside the ED office and the party headquarters in New Delhi.
Riding high on the euphoria generated by recent visits of All India Congress Committee general Secretary Rahul Gandhi and a battery of its Union ministers, the Congress is going it all alone this assembly elections in Bihar, hoping for a better showing.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday advised newly-elected young Members of Legislative Assembly from Maharashtra and Haryana, who were given tickets from the Youth Congress quota, to work towards strengthening the organisation, keeping the Aam Aadmi as the focus in their work.Gandhi also discussed the recent assembly election results in these states with the young MLAs. He also promised to visit Maharashtra soon.
Gehlot launched a scathing attack on Pilot dubbing him a 'gaddar' (traitor) and said he can never be made the chief minister of the state.
In his post, Gandhi urged people to elect the Congress and said, "Rajasthan will choose free treatment. Rajasthan will choose cheaper gas cylinder. Rajasthan will choose interest-free agricultural loan. Rajasthan will choose English education. Rajasthan will choose OPS. Rajasthan will choose caste census."
The Congress on Saturday accused the Centre of insulting Dr Manmohan Singh, the country's first Sikh prime minister, by carrying out his last rites at the Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could later become his memorial.
The Assembly polls may be three years away in Uttar Pradesh, but Rahul Gandhi has begun the ground-level work to capture power in the key state. Perhaps emboldened by the Lok Sabha and the recent bypoll success, the Congress general secretary, it is learnt, is handpicking observers who will each be in charge of 40 constituencies -- to begin with -- for the 2012 polls.
Union minister Smriti Irani reacted furiously to the Congress leader's barb at the prime minister over the Rafale purchase and the tense situation in Manipur.
'No political party can antagonise Ambedkarite voters, particularly the neo-Buddhists.'
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Saturday stirred a controversy by saying that time has come for Rahul Gandhi to take charge of the party from his mother Sonia Gandhi, a statement that was described as his "personal views" by the party.
In a major setback to the opposition INDIA bloc, Banerjee announced that her party has decided to go alone in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
An overwhelming number of new appointees across the party's organisational structure -- from the highest decision-making body CWC (Congress Working Committee) to the special committee formed to assist interim party chief Sonia Gandhi -- are known as Rahul Gandhi's confidantes.
The total amount will be Rs 1.65 crore approximately, it said in the "clarification" that came after Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shared on X a video purportedly of Kumar's father, who stated he had not received any money.
Sonia Gandhi will continue her uninterrupted reign as Congress president till the next party election takes place after three years. No one in the party has filed a nomination for the post.